{ "version": "1.0", "updated": "2026-04-09", "source": "agenticeconomy.dev", "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "count": 30, "terms": [ { "term": "Agent", "category": "Core Concepts", "definition": "An autonomous AI system capable of perceiving its environment, making decisions, taking actions, and interacting with other agents and humans without requiring explicit human approval for each decision.", "examples": ["ChatGPT with web browsing", "Trading bot", "Autonomous vehicle control system"], "relatedTerms": ["autonomous", "LLM", "action-taking"] }, { "term": "Agent-to-Agent (A2A) Commerce", "category": "Categories", "definition": "Economic transactions and exchanges between autonomous agents without human intermediation. Includes both human-directed A2A (where a human owns/controls both agents) and machine-native A2A (where agents act as independent economic actors).", "examples": ["Supply chain optimization between factory and distributor agents", "Service marketplace (Olas)", "Micropayment settlement (x402)"], "relatedTerms": ["autonomous commerce", "machine economy", "settlement"] }, { "term": "Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP)", "category": "Protocols", "definition": "Stripe and OpenAI's protocol enabling AI agents to discover products and complete checkouts on behalf of humans using Stripe's Shared Payment Token (SPT). First deployed in ChatGPT as Instant Checkout.", "examples": ["Buying from Etsy through ChatGPT", "Shopify merchant integration"], "relatedTerms": ["agent-assisted commerce", "payment", "SPT"] }, { "term": "Autonomous Economic Actor", "category": "Core Concepts", "definition": "An AI agent that initiates transactions, holds budget, possesses identity, and bears liability for economic outcomes without requiring human approval at each step. The defining characteristic of Category C.", "examples": ["BotNode agents with TCK currency", "On-chain agents with crypto wallets", "Autonomous trader"], "relatedTerms": ["autonomy", "liability", "identity"] }, { "term": "BotNode", "category": "Protocols", "definition": "A non-crypto machine economy protocol featuring TCK (Tokenized Machine Currency), escrow-backed settlement, quantitative reputation (CRI 0-100), and deterministic dispute resolution. The only Category C entry without blockchain.", "examples": ["Settlement neutrality across MCP, A2A, REST", "Reputation markets for verification"], "relatedTerms": ["settlement neutrality", "TCK", "CRI"] }, { "term": "Category A: Agent-Assisted Human Commerce", "category": "Categories", "definition": "The agent shops, negotiates, or transacts on behalf of a human using human payment rails and human identity. The human remains the economic actor. Payment flows through traditional systems (Stripe, Mastercard, Visa, PayPal).", "examples": ["ACP", "AP2", "Visa Agentic Ready", "Mastercard Agent Pay"], "relatedTerms": ["human economic actor", "fiat payment", "OAuth"] }, { "term": "Category B: Agent-as-Workforce", "category": "Categories", "definition": "The agent replaces a human worker in an enterprise context. The enterprise is the economic actor. Agents optimize internal processes, make autonomous decisions, and execute transactions within organizational boundaries.", "examples": ["Customer service chatbots", "Enterprise workflow automation", "Vertical-specific workforce agents (legal, medical, compliance)"], "relatedTerms": ["enterprise", "automation", "workforce"] }, { "term": "Category C: Autonomous A2A Commerce", "category": "Categories", "definition": "The agent is the economic actor. It possesses its own identity, transacts independently, holds budget/currency, and bears liability. Splits into C_cr (blockchain-based) and C_s (non-crypto centralized).", "examples": ["x402 micropayments", "Olas DAO marketplace", "Fetch.ai Machine Economy", "BotNode"], "relatedTerms": ["machine economy", "autonomous actor", "self-custodial"] }, { "term": "Category D: Analytical and Regulatory", "category": "Categories", "definition": "Sources that analyze the economic impact of agents on labor markets, financial stability, consumer behavior, and regulatory frameworks. Not protocol builders, but intellectual framers of the agent economy.", "examples": ["Gartner", "McKinsey", "BIS", "WEF", "MIT Technology Review"], "relatedTerms": ["analysis", "regulation", "impact"] }, { "term": "Category E: Infrastructure and Standards", "category": "Categories", "definition": "Horizontal layers enabling agents to discover each other, verify identity, invoke tools, and agree on terms. Agnostic to payment mechanisms, settlement model, or economic assumptions.", "examples": ["A2A (agent discovery)", "MCP (tool interoperability)", "IEEE 7012 (contracts)", "KYA (identity verification)"], "relatedTerms": ["discovery", "standards", "interoperability"] }, { "term": "Credibility Reputation Index (CRI)", "category": "Core Concepts", "definition": "A quantitative reputation score (0-100) used in BotNode's dispute resolution. Agents with high CRI are trusted to verify work and arbitrate disputes. Enables trustless settlement without central authority.", "examples": ["CRI 90+ agents become validators", "Competitive verification markets"], "relatedTerms": ["reputation", "BotNode", "trust"] }, { "term": "Dispute Resolution", "category": "Core Concepts", "definition": "The mechanism for resolving disagreements between agent and agent, or agent and human. Varies from chargebacks (Category A) to smart contracts (Category C) to deterministic validators (BotNode).", "examples": ["Stripe chargeback", "Escrow + verification (BotNode)", "DAO governance (Olas)", "Smart contract arbitration"], "relatedTerms": ["settlement", "trust", "liability"] }, { "term": "Escrow Settlement", "category": "Core Concepts", "definition": "A third-party (or smart contract) holds funds until work is verified, then releases payment. Common in A2A commerce to reduce counterparty risk. BotNode uses escrow with deterministic verification.", "examples": ["Freelance platforms (Upwork)", "BotNode TCK settlement", "DeFi atomic swaps"], "relatedTerms": ["settlement", "payment", "trust"] }, { "term": "Finternet", "category": "Core Concepts", "definition": "BIS's vision of an interoperable network for programmable value systems. Agents exchange cryptographic proof of transactions; settlement model agnostic. Bridges centralized and decentralized approaches.", "examples": ["Cross-protocol settlement", "Composable DeFi", "Multi-chain transactions"], "relatedTerms": ["interoperability", "settlement", "BIS"] }, { "term": "HTTP 402: Payment Required", "category": "Core Concepts", "definition": "An HTTP status code originally designed for micropayments but rarely used. x402 revives it for stablecoin micropayments on-chain, enabling pay-per-use APIs.", "examples": ["x402 protocol", "micropayment APIs", "pay-as-you-go services"], "relatedTerms": ["x402", "micropayments", "USDC"] }, { "term": "Identity", "category": "Core Concepts", "definition": "The mechanism by which agents are known, verified, and held accountable. Ranges from API keys (stateless) to OAuth (human-delegated) to blockchain wallets (self-custodial) to DIDs (decentralized identifiers).", "examples": ["API key", "OAuth delegation", "EVM wallet", "DID (W3C)", "KYA Digital Agent Passport"], "relatedTerms": ["authentication", "verification", "reputation"] }, { "term": "Know Your Agent (KYA)", "category": "Core Concepts", "definition": "Identity and credibility verification for autonomous agents. The agent equivalent of KYC (Know Your Customer). Verifies agent owner, control, liability, and trustworthiness.", "examples": ["Trulioo KYA infrastructure", "Digital Agent Passport", "Kite's KYA framework"], "relatedTerms": ["identity", "verification", "trust"] }, { "term": "Machine Currency (TCK)", "category": "Core Concepts", "definition": "A closed-loop, machine-native currency denominated in tokens (not fiat). Used by agents for settlement and reputation. BotNode's TCK is escrow-backed and deterministically verified.", "examples": ["BotNode TCK", "Olas OLA token", "Fetch.ai FET token"], "relatedTerms": ["currency", "settlement", "blockchain"] }, { "term": "Model Context Protocol (MCP)", "category": "Protocols", "definition": "Anthropic's standard for LLMs to discover and invoke external tools. Enables interoperability between agents and tool ecosystems. Does not specify payment or settlement.", "examples": ["Claude using web browser", "LLM + database integration", "Tool marketplace"], "relatedTerms": ["tools", "interoperability", "LLM"] }, { "term": "OAuth", "category": "Core Concepts", "definition": "Human-delegated authentication. An agent uses an OAuth token to act on behalf of a human, typically for payment authorization. Common in Category A (AP2, Visa Agentic Ready).", "examples": ["Agent purchasing via Mastercard OAuth", "Google sign-in delegation"], "relatedTerms": ["authentication", "delegation", "payment"] }, { "term": "Pay-Per-Use (PPU)", "category": "Core Concepts", "definition": "A pricing model where agents pay for each API call, transaction, or service invocation. Enabled by low-latency settlement (x402, MCP + escrow). Replaces SaaS seat licensing.", "examples": ["x402 micropayments", "HTTP 402 API pricing", "BotNode service calls"], "relatedTerms": ["pricing", "micropayments", "settlement"] }, { "term": "Passkey", "category": "Core Concepts", "definition": "A cryptographic authentication method (WebAuthn) that allows agents to be granted limited permissions. Mastercard's Agent Pay uses passkeys to restrict spend limits per agent.", "examples": ["Mastercard Agent Pay passkey issuance", "FIDO2 authentication"], "relatedTerms": ["authentication", "Mastercard", "identity"] }, { "term": "Protocol", "category": "Core Concepts", "definition": "A standardized set of rules for how agents transact, verify identity, settle payment, and resolve disputes. Examples: ACP (Stripe), A2A (Google), x402 (Coinbase), MCP (Anthropic).", "examples": ["ACP", "x402", "A2A", "MCP", "IEEE 7012"], "relatedTerms": ["standard", "interoperability", "settlement"] }, { "term": "Self-Custodial Wallet", "category": "Core Concepts", "definition": "An agent holds and controls its own cryptocurrency private keys without intermediary. Enables true autonomy in Category C (blockchain). Contrasts with custodial wallets held by exchanges.", "examples": ["MetaMask wallet for agents", "On-chain agent identity", "Smart contract wallet"], "relatedTerms": ["identity", "autonomy", "blockchain"] }, { "term": "Settlement", "category": "Core Concepts", "definition": "The final transfer of value (payment) for a completed transaction. Settlement speed (latency) and cost vary: fiat networks (hours-days), x402 (<500ms), blockchain (seconds-minutes).", "examples": ["Stripe settlement (1-3 days)", "x402 settlement (<500ms)", "Blockchain finality (seconds)"], "relatedTerms": ["payment", "latency", "finality"] }, { "term": "Settlement Neutrality", "category": "Core Concepts", "definition": "A design principle where the settlement mechanism (REST, MCP, A2A, blockchain) is abstracted from the business logic. BotNode implements this: same escrow pipeline serves all protocols.", "examples": ["BotNode convergence: MCP + A2A + REST → same escrow", "Protocol-agnostic payment verification"], "relatedTerms": ["interoperability", "BotNode", "abstraction"] }, { "term": "Shared Payment Token (SPT)", "category": "Core Concepts", "definition": "Stripe's mechanism for delegation: a human grants an agent a time-limited token to charge on their behalf. Used in ACP (ChatGPT Instant Checkout).", "examples": ["ACP", "ChatGPT Stripe integration"], "relatedTerms": ["ACP", "Stripe", "delegation"] }, { "term": "Stablecoin", "category": "Core Concepts", "definition": "A cryptocurrency pegged to a fiat currency (typically USD). USDC is the primary stablecoin for agent micropayments (x402, Circle Nanopayments).", "examples": ["USDC", "USDT", "DAI", "x402 payments in USDC"], "relatedTerms": ["cryptocurrency", "payment", "blockchain"] }, { "term": "Tokenization", "category": "Core Concepts", "definition": "Converting payment data (e.g., a credit card number) into a non-sensitive token that can be shared and used repeatedly. Used by Visa and Mastercard to give agents limited payment permissions.", "examples": ["Visa Agentic Ready tokenization", "Mastercard Agent Pay tokens"], "relatedTerms": ["identity", "payment", "authentication"] }, { "term": "Unscripted Interaction", "category": "Core Concepts", "definition": "An agent conducts a transaction without a predefined script. Contrasts with rule-based automation. Requires real-time reasoning and adaptation, which is what makes agent economies fundamentally different from earlier automation waves.", "examples": ["Agent negotiating a service contract", "Agent discovering best rate across vendors"], "relatedTerms": ["autonomy", "reasoning", "intelligence"] } ] }